Macenzie Rebelo is the Communication and Engagement Associate with Diabetes Action Canada (DAC). She attended the opening of Within the Highs and Lows: Young and Type 1 Photo Exhibition on behalf of DAC. Drawing on her lived experience with an autoimmune condition, she is passionate about advancing equity and inclusion and amplifying community voices to drive meaningful change, particularly through the arts.

In 2019, after a study with parents of young adults living with type 1 diabetes, the research team at St. Michael’s Hospital Diabetes Clinic realized there was still a lot to learn about what it is really like to live with type 1 diabetes as a young adult. 

To better understand the complexities of living with type 1 diabetes and raise public awareness, Unity Health Toronto co-designed a photo exhibition with 22 young adults from diverse backgrounds to share their stories and make sense of their experiences together. 

These conversations created safe spaces for reflection, grief, and connection around the often-overlooked challenges of everyday life with type 1 diabetes. This work began as a pilot project with youth in Ontario and was later expanded nationally through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 

After six years of collaboration, the photo exhibit is now open to the public, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the everyday experiences and challenges of living with type 1 diabetes.  

Through the perspectives of each participant, the photographs explore coming-of-age experiences such as relationships, education, identity, imagining the future, unlearning stigma, and redefining what it means to live well while managing an unrelenting condition that remains woven into their daily lives.  

Each section of the exhibition is organized into zones that represent recurring themes identified through conversations with participants. Each zone is accompanied by supporting raw imagery and audio that surround the public in the sounds, feelings, and visual expressions of living with type 1 diabetes.  

The exhibition is divided into the following zones: 

Zone 1. I’m Greater Than My Highs and Lows: Participants spoke of the constant pressure of numbers – blood sugar highs and lows tracked by clinicians, family, friends, and themselves.  

Zone 2. Walking In a Windstorm – The Unrelenting, The Unpredictable, The Unseen: All participants described diabetes as a constant force. Like walking in a windstorm, life continues forward but never without resistance.  

Zone 3. Diabetes on Display – Surveillance, Stigma and Reclaiming the Narrative: Within the windstorm of daily life with diabetes, surveillance and stigma emerged as shaping forces. 

Zone 4. Network of Care – Health Care Providers: Healthcare professionals emerged as central figures in participants’ accounts, shaping not only clinical care but the broader trajectory of life with diabetes.   

Zone 5. In Relationship with Diabetes – Living with, Against and Alongside: Shaped by forces traced across this exhibit, participants described their relationship with diabetes as continually evolving, marked by moments of tension and tenderness.  

Zone 6. Carry This with You…: When asked what they hoped people would carry forward from this exhibit, participants spoke not only of understanding but of action. They hoped these images and stories would move beyond gallery walls, shaping how people think, speak, and care throughout the world alongside those with type 1 diabetes.  

The art concludes with a reflection wall, inviting visitors to write down what they have learned and anonymously place it on the gallery wall, creating a final, ever-evolving artwork that brings the exhibition to a close. 

Within the Highs and Lows: Young and Type 1 is open to the public from May 29-31 at Arta Gallery, 14 Distillery Lane, Distillery District, Toronto, ON.